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1、Fuzzy Languages Communication FunctionAbstract: This thesis studies fuzzy languages communicative. By analyzing and comparing a large number of fuzzy languages usage and a great array of theory about the fuzzy language, this thesis finds that it is of great importance to use fuzzy language to commun
2、icate with others. And this thesis takes the causes of fuzzy language, the relationship with the Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle, the usage in daily life and the good effects it causes into consideration. And this finding reinforces the fuzzy language can benefit human being a lot and
3、 we should make the most of fuzzy language to our advantage. Only in this way can we have a good command of English or foreign language.Key words: Fuzzy language Cooperative Principle Politeness Principle Communicative functionIntroduction Fuzzy language arouses couples of scholar interests in study
4、ing on it since American scholar Lofti Zedehs Fuzzy-Set Theory. Fuzzy language refers to the form of language without shapely defined boundaries and with the characteristics of vagueness. Many scholars hold the view that fuzzy language is a violation of Cooperative Principle and in order to get acro
5、ss our messages we should use precise language in replace of fuzzy language. However, as Mr. Tieping says: “We can say in a sense, there is no human natural language without vague language.” This thesis analyzes the cause of fuzzy language, the observance of Cooperative Principle and Politeness Prin
6、ciple, and fuzzy languages usage and great benefits in daily life, in order to make the importance of fuzzy language more clear. This thesis is trying to help students treat correctly with all kinds of vague concepts during the communication and help them have a good command of fuzzy language.Fuzzy
7、language, as a constitutive property of natural language, is persuasive in every aspect of language. It is a form of language without shapely defined boundaries and characterized by vagueness. As Liu Fang says, “Vagueness is one of the basic of attributes of natural languages, which is determined by
8、 the objective attributes of language and its imperfection in the function of expression.” From the exploration of several theories, there are several factors contributing to the vagueness of fuzzy language. Firstly, the vague words or phrases, for their own sake have vagueness, such as “beautiful”
9、“handsome” “big” “small” “heavy” “light” and so forth. It is well known that standards towards “beautiful” vary from person to person, so we cant give a definition to it. For example, there is a girl coming. A: What a beautiful girl she is! However, the people do not see the girl can not figure out
10、the degree of beauty the girl has. Another important factor to this vagueness is the hedges, that is to say, some words without defined meaning such as adverbs, quantifier, and parenthesis. For example: 1. It may rain tonight.2. It is difficult in some way. The “may” and “in some way” makes the sent
11、ence full of vagueness. Whats more, fuzzy languages are widely used in the communication. Just as channell said, ordinary language leaves room for people to be vague, to avoid precision and the commitment associated with it, in fact, if people did not have access to vague language, their range of co
12、mmunication would be severely restricted. It is true of the fuzzy language used in daily life make the conversion simple and easy for people. It is well known that the communication is a complex procedure for the reason that people of different social position and education get involved and a certai
13、n goal is set to achieve. If only precise language is used, the social communication needs may not be met. Therefore, making the most of fuzzy language is a most and beneficial. There are four situations where fuzzy language is preferred. Firstly the speaker occasionally forgets the precise language
14、. Secondly, there is no precise language or the speakers do not know how to express by precise language. Thirdly, there is no need to use precise language. Fourthly, fuzzy language is a better way for speaker to develop a more harmonious social environment and let the communication go as smoothly as
15、 possible. To put in a nutshell, fuzzy language is taken to be of great importance for its efficient usage in communication. In daily life, fuzzy language is used frequently for different aims and a variety of reasons. Sometimes people are just not willing to make the problems as clear as crystal in
16、 order to leave some possibility of retracting the words. Sometimes fuzzy words can make the expressions more economic and get the meaning fully crossed.Fuzzy language can fully reflect the Cooperative Principle. Most people believe that “good language” should be clear and accurate, and vagueness an
17、d ambiguity should be avoided. Some linguists pointed out the fuzzy language didnt observe the Cooperative Principle and make the communication different to carry on. However, the fact is that fuzzy language makes the most of Cooperative Principle to achieve the communicative goal. The Cooperative P
18、rinciple was brought out by H.P.Grice, and he stated that “make your contribution such as it is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose on direction of talk exchange in which you are engaged.” Make in simple, it means that people who obey the Cooperative Principle can get
19、the purpose of conversation. There are four maxims in the Cooperative Principle, which are, Quantity Maxim, Quality Maxim, Relation Maxim and Manner Maxim. For example, the Maxim of Quality requires: 1. Do not say what you believe to be false; 2. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.
20、That means the out trace should be truthful. There is an example: A: What is the weather like tomorrow?B: It is said that tomorrow is a fine day. When the student B talked about tomorrows weather, he was not convinced that tomorrow was a fine day because of his lack of evidence, he chose to use the
21、fuzzy language “It is said that”. The benefit of using fuzzy language not only observes the Quality Maxim to provide enough information but also avoid losing face or making mistakes. Another example “John is more or less six feet tall.” The fuzzy language “more or less” is used to observe the Qualit
22、y Maxim. The speaker is not sure of the exact height of John, and he is not allowed to provide the details lacking of adequate evidence, so he deals it with the problem with fuzzy language.Whats more, the Maxim of Quantity plays an important part in peoples communication. As Grice describes, The Max
23、im of Quantity 1. Make your contribution as information as is required; 2. Do not make your contribution more informative than is required. To put in a nutshell, the speaker should provide the information neither too much nor too less. The following case is the speaker who observes this maxim and ge
24、ts the information fully crossed. Susan: What is the population of students in foreign language school of HZAU? John: About eight hundred. In this situation, John used “about eight hundred” instead of exact number of “795” or “815” because the aim of Susan is to know the overall population rather th
25、an the exact one. Providing too much information will add burden on others instead of helping others. Therefore, it is no doubt that a fuzzy language fulfills the goal of communication more than precise language under some circumstances and we can use fuzzy language for the sake of economy at the sa
26、me time. Apart from the Cooperative Principle, fuzzy language is closely related with the Politeness Principle. It is of great importance to use fuzzy language to adhere to the Politeness Principle. The purpose of using fuzzy language is various, such as being polite and establishing and maintaining
27、 harmonious social language relations in conversation. All in all, the speakers who use fuzzy language appear to be polite, considerate and less powerful.The politeness Principle is a series of maxims, which Geoffrey has proposed as a way of explaining how politeness in conversational exchange. For
28、example: 1. I was wondering if Mary could do me a favor. 2. I would suggest he see the movie. 3. Im afraid we cant. The first example is a requirement without a strong expression by using the fuzzy language “I was wondering”. It is associated with superficial “nice” and easily be accepted by others.
29、 It is an observance of Tact Maxim of Politeness Principle. The second sentence uses “Im afraid” to declaim others invitation without making others feel embarrassed and unhappy, the answer seems polite and the environment between the speaker and listener is harmonious. The third sentence with fuzzy
30、language “I would suggest” avoid imposing the speakers own mind on others and the listener would be pleased to accept the advice under such circumstance.The widely use of fuzzy language attach importance to the vaguenesss benefit. Fuzzy language dramatically benefits linguistic expressiveness and in
31、crease communicative effects. In many situations, fuzzy language will make expressions more natural and graceful, and convey human feelings and thoughts more effectively.For instance, a stranger calls on your neighbor, but he is not at home. To show your politeness, you should chat with the guest. A
32、fter the returning of your neighbor, you can describe as “a woman with a maxim figure, about 30 years old, golden wavy hairs and a northern accent”. This information is well enough for your neighbor to figure out the peoples identity, However, if you give too much details, “a woman has a height of 1
33、63, 31-year-old, yellow wavy hair with an Beijing accent”, your neighbor will be bewilder about the womans identity and fail to figure out the real one. Therefore, the fuzzy language is more flexible and more natural as well as contributes to the effectiveness of social communication.Fuzzy language
34、often appears in the news broadcast for its euphemism. English linguists pointed out that “Both sides have had full and frank talks on a wide range of subjects of mutual interest” is so widely applied that almost every piece of news uses it. However, we people cant figure out the accurate developmen
35、t of the two sides. Fuzzy language used in news can meet the need of audience because the audience aims to have a overall knowledge of current affairs happened in and out of the country instead of commanding every details and precise statistics.ConclusionTherefore, we can naturally draw the conclusi
36、on that it is of great benefit to use fuzzy language in our day-to-day life. Just as Chanell says, “Ordinary language leaves room for people to be vague, to avoid precision and the commitment associated with it, in fact, if people did not have access to vague language, their range of communication w
37、ould be severely restricted.” The infinity, flexibility and diversity of fuzzy language make great contribution to the exactness of language in communication, avoidance of embarrassment, politeness and self-protection and so forth. There goes with saying that human being cant understand each other a
38、nd achieve the goal of communication.Cited works1洪岗. “会话原则”与模糊语言的语用功能 . 浙江：浙江师大学报（社会科学版）.1997.2伍铁平. 模糊语言学M.上海：上海外语教育出版社，1999.3胡英奇. 交际中的模糊语言运用.昌吉学院学报.，2006.4陈林华 李福印 . 交际中的模糊限制语 . 上海：上海外国语大学学报， 1994.5李霞 . 模糊语言语言交际的一种艺术 . 湖北教育学院学报， 2007.6易来宾 . 模糊语言的模糊美 . 湖南城市学院学报， 2004.7赵明炜 毛卓亮 . 模糊语言的语用分析 . 河北大学学报（哲学社
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